Landfills in Jordan as a Source of Green Energy and Potential for Investments

Hani Abu Qdais, Queen Rania Centre for Environmental Sciences & Technology, Jordan University of Science & Technology, Irbid, Jordan

Landfills have been and will remain an important functional element of most solid waste management systems for the disposal of solid waste. However, landfilling is associated with certain adverse environmental impacts. One of the by-products of the landfilling process is biogas. The biogas generated is mainly composed of methane and carbon dioxide, which are green house gases (GHGs) that are causing the well known global warming phenomena. This is especially true in developing countries like Jordan, where the most of landfills are operated as unsanitary landfills (without biogas and leachate management systems). Globally, landfills are the third largest anthropogenic source, accounting for 13 % of emission. In Jordan, the waste sector contributed to about 13.5 % (2 713 Gg CO₂ eq) of the country's total emission. The most of emissions (93 %) were from the disposal of municipal solid waste.

Currently, there are 21 operating landfills in Jordan, receiving a daily amount of 5 700 tons of solid waste. The largest one is Al Ghabawi landfill which handles about 2 500 tons per day that are generated mainly from the Capital City of Amman and from other cities and towns nearby Amman. Advancing the recovery and use of methane from the landfills will lead to enhancement of economic growth, promotion of energy security and improving the local air quality and public health. Realizing these facts, and by signing and ratifying Kyoto protocol, the Jordanian Government decided to open the door to private sector to invest in the energy recovery projects at the landfills. Despite that, to date only one landfill has a methane recovery and energy generation system.

The main objective of the paper is to estimate the energy potential of the Jordanian landfills and to present the potential for investments in biogas projects. The reasons behind the delay in investing in landfill biogas projects will be highlighted and recommendations for creating enabling environment to attract investors to the biogas industry will be suggested.

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Hani Abu Qdais, associate professor, director, Queen Rania Al Abdallah Centre for Environmental Sciences & Technology, Jordan University of Science & Technology, P. O. Box 3030, Irbid, 22110, Jordan. Tel. (2) 720-10-00, ext. 2-23-93. Email